Without technology our world of ubiquitous choice would be overwhelming
Can you really have too much choice?
Not having a choice drives most of us mad. Think ‘forgone conclusion’ or fait accompli — it’s invariably frustrating. So most of us have welcomed the explosion of options since the internet went live less than thirty years ago. Every one of us is now able to be our own estate agent, news editor, travel agent, insurance broker and entertainment provider. Being bombarded with infinite possibilities is liberating but it has also become a burden.
Starbucks provide more than 80,000 coffee combinations — prompting us to select size, temperature, type of milk and bean among a host of other possibilities. Ponder them too long and you’ll get nothing else done that day. It’s the digital manifestation of the paralysis of analysis.
As with so many other things — just because you can, doesn’t mean you have to and technology is increasingly providing solutions — helping us to take advantage of choice without being sunk by it. At its best it not only saves us time and energy — we can save money too.
The FinTech response
The FinTech world has attracted some of the most able and innovative to embrace this opportunity and it’s bearing fruit. HSBC has released an app update so that customers can see all their bank accounts in one place — putting competitors under the same digital roof so that users can see their overall finances in one place.
Likewise, banking app Meniga is eliminating the hassle surrounding financial management by automatically categorizing spending so consumers know what they have spent and where. Counterintuitively, but after a huge amount of user research, they made the call to not show users their bank balance in the app.
There are automatic saving apps too (Chip, Plum, Cleo and so on) that charge technology with setting aside small sums that we don’t really notice until we have a virtual nest egg which is worth looking at. The consumer remains in charge — because he or she chooses what portion of every transaction to forgo for the future, then lets the technology to do the hard work of building that up. In these examples, the user has made a clear decision to leave the filtering and expertise to technology.
The Switchcraft way
Managing information is at the heart of what we do at Switchcraft. We help our users make the choice most suitable for them when they sign up, and they then trust us to make a suitable choice on their behalf in the future.
When signing up, we present less information than traditional price comparison sites because we have found that it increases the probability that a user will complete our signup process.
We also trialed showing users the best deals only — but found that this didn’t go down well, despite the fact that they consistently chose those deals when they were presented alongside a long list of alternatives.
Infinite choice seems attractive but it can easily be overwhelming. Infinite choice with a high-tech companion provides the best of both worlds.
Andrew Long, Founder of Switchcraft
